As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is an information handling system (IHS). An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for such systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
A power supply may exist to supply power to the IHS and its requisite components. In addition, different components within the IHS may have different power and/or voltage requirements. Thus, voltage regulators, or more generally, power components may be employed to regulate each component and/or groups of components depending on their respective power requirements. In effect, power components may convert the voltage supplied by the power supply into a different, usually lower voltage usable by their associated devices.
In certain instances, a power component may fail and cause a short circuit, which may cause a large overcurrent in the IHS. For example, a voltage regulator may fail when one of its components, such as a metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) malfunctions and becomes a short circuit. Furthermore, because modern power supplies may provide relatively large amounts of power, a short circuit in the IHS may result in overheating from too much current, thereby irreparably damaging IHS components.
Conventional power supplies may provide certain failsafe mechanisms in the event of a power component failure. For example, a power supply may provide overcurrent protection during the operation of the IHS under relatively high load conditions (i.e., periods of time where the IHS consumes a relatively high amount of current). Thus, if a failure in a power component creates a short circuit and/or overcurrent, the power supply may detect this condition and switch itself to an OFF state.
However, when the IHS is next powered back on during power initiation, though an overcurrent through the failed power component may exist, this overcurrent may not be detected by the power supply. This is because during power initiation, the power components may be successively switched to an ON state, one after the other. Thus, during power initiation, the current draw of the IHS does not reach its full potential until all its power components and devices have powered on. As a result, the overcurrent protection in the power supply, which may be designed for relatively high load conditions, may not be able to detect an overcurrent through a particular failed power component during power initiation. In other words, even though an overcurrent may exist through the failed power component, such overcurrent may not be high enough to trigger the overcurrent protection.
Thus, systems and methods are needed to provide multiple power stages with different current thresholds for different power components during power initiation such that overcurrent through certain power components may be detected.